Essential Info: Maino has always carried himself like a boss and now the Brooklyn, New York MC has finally risen to Don status by assembling his hand-picked family of rap assassins.

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On Tuesday (October 9), the “Hi Hater” spitter officially introduced the Mafia to rap fans via the group’s self-titled debut mixtape. Comprised of Push!, Lucky Don
, Twigg Martin, Hustle Hard Mouse and Maino himself, the Mafia aim to make a major splash with this little thing of theirs.

The tape’s “Intro” finds Main introducing his team properly. “Welcome to the mob, you’ve now been invited/ To step into my world where lames get indicted/ Killers get excited, the drama gets ignited/ Through bloodshed and war me and my n—as stand united,” Maino spits before his team display their murderous wordplay one-by-one.

On Friday, the Brooklyn bar slingers stopped by MTV News and Maino explained his vision, describing a Wu-Tang Clan-like dynamic where the group stands together, but each member can also stand as an individual. The Notorious B.I.G. had a similar dream when he introduced Lil’ Kim and Lil’ Cease on his group Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s 1995 debut Conspiracy and while Maino’s Mafia may conjure up memories of Biggie’s crew, the only similarity is in the name. “I love that movement. That’s not what this is, ain’t nothing junior about this over here. No disrespect to that because if it wasn’t for Big and if it wasn’t for Kim I wouldn’t be here. I’m from that same tree,” he explained. “Big put Kim on, Kim helped me, that’s no secret to nobody, but this is my own thing.”

The Black Flag Mafia, as Maino’s crew is more commonly known, has had a strong presence in New York’s underground, but in order for the squad to hold appeal in the marketplace, the savvy rapper tweaked the name a bit. “It’s always been Black Flag, but when I wanted to start the movement up and I started thinking about the clothes and all that I figured I’d knock the Black Flag off the clothes because the average person may not want to get with that,” he said.

Instead, Main chose something more familiar for the crew’s logo, borrowing the puppeteer-inspired art from 1972 Academy Award-winning film “The Godfather.” “It was just me trying to incorporate a couple of things to start the movement up,” he said.

Mission accomplished.

What’s your favorite track from the Mafia’s self-titled debut mixtape? Let us know in the comments!